


Reaching the Limit

by Ladyofwarandmercy



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Breaking Up & Making Up, F/M, Maybe - Freeform, Not Happy, You Have Been Warned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-18
Updated: 2015-01-18
Packaged: 2018-03-08 03:36:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3193787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladyofwarandmercy/pseuds/Ladyofwarandmercy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If this story had a soundtrack, it would be "Good Woman" by Cat Power and "Wild Horses" by the Rolling Stones. It's not a happy fic, but I don't leave you without hope.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reaching the Limit

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not Cat Power, and the quoted lyrics aren't mine.

Coulson swore he was never going to work with Ward again. But Ward seemed to have other ideas. He and Agent 33 had made raids on HYDRA facilities, leaving bigwigs, items, and other juicy bits of intel the team had found useful. But Coulson was sure they had not heard the rumors he had just heard. An item of great importance was somewhere in Belgium, and the recent unpleasantness in Belgium made an official SHIELD raid on the HYDRA facility unadvised. He was going to need to pick the wildcards up off the table, and put them in his hands to play in Belgium. 

Skye was getting used to the new gloves Fitz and Mack had made to help her control her powers. After a practice session, May had her report to Coulson’s office. “You’re the only one he might listen to,” he told her. Skye tried to force a smile. She nodded, and agreed to try and meet Grant and Agent 33. She figured Grant’s feelings would at least mean she could get a word in edgewise.

Some hours later, there was a raid on a storage unit in town, and May and Bobbi were sent to investigate. Skye was apparently in the storage unit. The three came back, and shuffled into Coulson’s office. May was furious, Bobbi was shaking her head, and Skye was on the verge of tears. May tossed a scrawled-on box lid on the table, which read, _“No deal, Coulson.”_ The fuzz from Skye’s sweater was still clinging to the tape on the box lid. Coulson was on his feet, “Is she okay?” Bobbi grimaced, “She was taped up and ICERed up, but it wasn’t real duct tape on her wrists. The answer is obviously no. We just didn’t expect it this harshly.” May broke in, “And then on our way back, Skye finally gave us some detail about San Juan she just _happened_ to have forgotten in her debrief. Or when you sent her on this assignment for that matter. The part where she shot her Romeo in the back four times, and might just have ruined their rapport. Which only leaves Bobbi or myself trying to get through to Agent 33. I wish us lots of luck, seeing as she may have been too brainwashed to remember she liked us back at the Academy. Our attempt to talk to Ward and Palamas looks to be a wash. We can forget directing them into Belgium.”

“I did it because I thought you wanted Ward dead,” Skye finally said, “I just wasn’t strong enough to do it.” Coulson shook his head and gave her a shocked face, “Wow, no. I didn’t want you killing him if he wasn’t an immediate threat. If I wanted Ward dead, I would have just let him go those times he tried to kill himself. If we had known you had done this, we would not have sent you. You’re off all missions involving Ward that do not involve dangerous Gifteds from here on out.” The flinch was small, but Coulson could see it. May could see it as well, and snaked a hand onto Skye’s forearm. Skye nodded, and murmured a “thank you,” as she ran out of the door.

“I hope she’s going to the testing room, or it’s going to be rough for the next hour or so,” Bobbi said. The other two nodded. Even so, Coulson could see the coffee in his cup get choppy. Everyone sat in silence for a moment. Finally, Bobbi broke the silence, “Devil’s advocate, here. If Lance had shot me in the back four times, I’d not be inclined to listen to what he had to say, either. Looks like May and I are going to have to try and remind Kara of the good times or something. I remember baking her an amaretto-soaked pound cake. But it was her 21st birthday. Who remembers that?” May grabbed a bag of almonds, and shook it as some kind of pointer. “Familiar tastes and smells are a good start for Palamas. But Skye? She wanted to see Ward again. That’s why she didn’t tell us until now. She was so sure he’d forgive her again and again, and she didn’t realize when she pushed him too far. That is using her heart instead of her head. And she knows better!” May ripped the bag open and began to snack. A knock on the doorframe preceded Fitz;s entry, with a concerned look on his face. “I’m not trying to ask what happened, but what just happened? Mack is doing all he can to keep the Testing Room from shaking clear apart, then Skye just runs out the door. Did Ward hurt her?” “Not physically,” May quipped. Coulson looked at the bank of camera monitors until he found where she had run to. “I’m going in to talk to her. Maybe you two should spend this time checking our ice cream supplies. If I live through this, I will send her out to you.” He removed his jacket and headed towards the old Bus.

Ward’s former quarters on the Bus were long cleared-out. All items were meticulously catalogued, and just about everything ended up in evidence files in the Playground. Skye did have a tendency to wear shirts that looked suspiciously like they were diverted from Ward’s possessions. As Coulson opened the door, he could see a neatly-stacked pile of Ward’s shirts placed back in the open drawer, and Skye curled up on the bed, staring at the wall. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and Coulson could hear her sniffling back the tears that threatened to sneak out of her nose. “I’m fine, AC. Just fine. I guess I shouldn’t wear his shirts anymore, should I? I’m used to this, really. I set a record at the orphanage as the most rejected kid. I’m used to it. I mean, I’m not even getting credit for trying to kill him for you.” Phil sat next to her on the bed, “As I said, I don’t want you to kill him for me. Ward…Ward embodied to me everything I felt was wrong with SHIELD, even before HYDRA. I don’t know who did more to squash the humanity out of him, Garrett, his family, or SHIELD. His thing for you was the closest I’ve seen to human emotions out of the guy.” Skye was not comforted. She said, “And now I went and ruined that, and didn’t tell you. I thought, I thought…” Coulson finished the thought, “He’d listen to you no matter what it had cost him in the past? That he had no limit to how much he can take from you? Well, it seems he had a limit. Look, we’re only mad that you didn’t tell us about the shooting. You didn’t have to go through what you went through today.” The tears began to roll down her cheeks. “He didn’t even hear what I had to say. I just told him I had an offer from you, then boom, he ICERed me right in the heart. I woke up taped to the chair with May and Bobbi telling each other my hands were bound with bondage tape instead of duct tape, so let’s cut her and go.” Coulson put arms around Skye. “Tears are better out than in. The rest of the ladies are going for ice cream. You want some when you feel better?”

Mackenzie burst into the Bus, “COULSON! The phone went off.” Coulson started. Nobody had to tell him which phone. Coulson gave Skye a squeeze, and ran to his office. Mackenzie fiddled with the sound system, and a mournful electric guitar twanged, and an electric fiddle joined in. A woman’s voice began to sing:

“I want, to be a good woman  
And I want, you to be a good man  
This is why I’m leaving.  
And this is why, I can’t see you no more  
I will miss, your heart so tender  
And I will love, this love forever…”

Mackenzie took his turn holding Skye, as she cried like a wounded animal. “That’s it, Skye. Just get those tears out. Cry now or rage later. It’s easier on the walls if you cry now. A Gift is hard enough to deal with. A Gift and a broken heart is so much worse.” “But, I don’t love him,” Skye choked out through sobs. “Yeah, sure, you don’t love him.” Mack rolled his eyes.

A while later, Skye had cried as much as she was going to, and headed to the showers. When she came back, she saw Jemma, holding a half-gallon of Blue Bell, and a handful of spoons. “May and Bobbi will join us in a bit. Ward and…Palamas, I think her name is, handed over a device we didn’t even know wasn’t in a US Army vault anymore. Mack and Fitz are trying to build some temporary containment, and the rest are trying to find it a safer, more permanent home.” “There was a note,” May said from behind Jemma, causing both to jump, “Skye, I think you should see it.” She motioned the two women to the entertainment room, as she grabbed one of the spoons from Jemma’s hand. The three of them plopped onto the sectional, with Skye getting the chaise lounge. Bobbi walked up, carrying a sheet of paper. Jemma popped the lid off the half-gallon as she handed a spoon to Bobbi. Bobbi handed Skye the paper before digging into the ice cream. This time the handwriting was Ward’s too-careful script, instead of (presumably) Palamas’s scrawl. It read, _“No hard feelings, Coulson? Didn’t want to get shot in the back again. We do this on my terms. You said I would never work for you again? I don’t work for you. No matter who you send. She doesn’t trust me. Now it’s mutual.”_ Bobbi snatched it back up before Skye crumpled it, and placed it in a bag.

Some months later, they had managed to bring down an entire HYDRA weapons research facility at the same time an unrelated “lone wolf” terrorist attack happened in the same city. When last anybody had seen Skye, she was shaking down an underground airstrip before HYDRA could escape with some devastating products of their WMD research. A week later, the hope of rescue had turned into the hope of recovery. She had been successful. All aircraft in the underground airstrip were rendered un-airworthy, and the personnel and technology were cleared out. The HYDRA personnel were under arrest, and Coulson was busy negotiating safe places and safe destruction for most of the technology recovered. But one woman in a secretly-built airbase was a needle in a haystack. The volunteers who did the search had no maps to go by. Skye’s apparent loss was hard on everyone at The Playground. It was just a matter of who showed it more.

The 2AM choodle of the “text” noise from the burner phone that was Coulson’s only tie to Ward’s operation nearly caused Coulson to jump out of his skin. The display only said, “St Mary’s ICU Daisy Zabo. I’ll return gloves later.” Coulson didn’t even remember running down the hall. It was as if one minute, he had looked at the phone, the next, he was pounding on the door to May’s quarters, and the rest of the team were poking their heads out to see the cause of the commotion. When he noticed everyone watching, May included, he only said three words, “Ward found her.”

Only two people were allowed to visit ICU patients at the same time. Coulson and May decided to go in first. She was covered in tubes and wires. A respirator was helping her get enough oxygen until her body could process out the dust that had accumulated in her lungs. But she was conscious. The nurse sat by her and dabbed her eyes as she saw her teammates come back in. But there was a slight disappointment in Skye’s eyes, as well as the nurse’s. “I think she thought you were going to be the volunteer who found her,” the nurse explained. “He swore they just had mutual friends. Oh honey child, I thought Mister Dreamy was going to come back, too.” Skye scribbled something on a notepad. The nurse peeked at it, “Ah, well, if they don’t like each other, what can you do? It’s a miracle from the Lord that this woman was found alive, and if y’all don’t mind, I’m staying here to monitor her.” Both Coulson and May nodded. Skye scratched something on a fresh sheet on the notepad, and showed it to May and Coulson. “He said he doesn’t trust me, but he still loves me. What does that mean?” The two of them looked at each other and shrugged. Hell if they could figure it out themselves.


End file.
